Lesson to be learned from this puzzle: just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you should. What kind of joy can anyone get out of a grid loaded with Ts? More to the point, what about Ts justifies the absolutely substandard grid required to make the T gimmick come off? I I saw all the T clues and the two-part T.T. long answers, and thought "Why?" Then I saw the additional layer—the fact that every answer has at least one T. Then I thought, "Dear lord, WHY?!" If you want to know why there is nothing remotely interesting about this grid except two of the three long answers—*that's* why? "Gotta make sure every word has a T!" But ... it's T. It's not a desirable letter. ETTA (56D: "Tell Mama" singer James) and ETTU and ATTA in same 4x4 section of grid? How can this appeal to anyone except the constructor (marveling at his T-cramming abilities)? Painful all around, everywhere I looked. Finished quickly, but not successfully—turns out I put in the sensible verb RENDS at 21D: Tears instead of the much odder noun RENTS. At that point, I really didn't care. So I had DOV instead of TOV (36A: Tevye's "good"). Seemed reasonable.

Theme answers:

all of them, I guess

Greatest clue was 10A: Turkey club? (NATO). Don't know if it's original, but I like it. Worst clue was 52A: Trap or record preceder (SET A). If you are serving up crud (e.g. this partial), then don't dress it in a tutu. Just put some jeans on the thing and let it go. By which I mean, a simple fill-in-the-blank clue will do. "Preceder" implies one word, but I get two, and one of them is "A." Ugh. I get that the phrase is one thing, hence a "preceder," but you see how I am talking about SET A instead of (in an ideal world) ignoring it? Innocuous clues for terrible fill—that should be the rule. Never heard of ESTEE Chandler (40D: "Terminal Bliss" actress Chandler) or OTTO Harbach. Also, never heard of "Terminal Bliss" or "The Touch of Your Hand." ESTEE Chandler hasn't acted in who knows how long and doesn't even have a Wikipedia page (could've clued her via "Teen Wolf Too"). OTTO Harbach seems to be quite a bit more famous, though "The Touch of Your Hand" isn't even mentioned on *his* Wikipedia page (he was lyricist for "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes," among other things). But the T god must be served.

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comments:

This is really a stinker. I am shocked that Will let this through. I've seen better puzzles in the backs of airplane magazines. This is the epitome of gimmicks that make the constructor smile but work against the spirit of the enterprise. It's the Tea Party of crosswords.

PS to NYT: AcrossLite needs to be updated to work with latest version of Mac OS X

This seemed like an easy Tuesday. At one point, I glanced at the constructor and saw "Paul G" and jumped to Paula Gamache in my mind, and kept thinking really? Doesn't feel like her! Well, may be because it wasn't her.

This is the anti-pangram (not to restart that discussion :). But the constraint of putting T in every answer really limits the range of letters. Although there is that V in TOV... I too had RENDS and DOV...

@santafe:Try grounding your receiver or tuner. There might be a grd terminal/screw. If not, experiment by holding a wire to input/output terminals. If that doesn't work, you can always turn the bass down when you're listening to NPR.

Must agree with Rex and others that this was horrible. Really surprised this passed muster. Not that I've ever constructed myself. Still, this seemed subpar. Many people will be Teed off today (groan).

I didn't end with the DOV error, as I knew TOV (after some crosses ). Instead I invented the word TYA (RaNTS works for the clue 'tears'.

Not sure that I get the clue 'Turkey club?' for NATO.

And I must admit that while solving, I didn't notice that all the clues began with T.

Hand up for RENd/dOV...Since Tevye is Russian, not Israeli, I don't even think he spoke Hebrew...maybe Yiddish but "good in Yiddish is Gut, right? So even tho I know some Hebrew, I missed that, thinking DOV was Russian, bec it is something like Dobra, right? And b/v gets exchanged in a lot of languages(Spanish, Greek, etc) Linguists?

Well, I didn't hate it!(Throw Tomatoes) bec it is hard to clue every clue with a T...I thought we liked it when someone did that with the letter C a while back, no?

And I thought that little quadruple T thing in the SW corner with the little footie extensions was cute!

I noticed the long theme answers and all the clues starting with T but didn't notice that EVERY word had a T in it (even if I hadn't made the dOV mistake) so I think that's neat!Plus he only used the crutch of starting with "The" like four or five times: The UN, The Beatles, The Ten Commandments, The Closer...none of them gratuitously!

My only complaint is it should have been a Tuesday, but for those of us who did it tonight, it was!

ps I was hoping Rex might post this, but I don't see it and I'm leaving town for a while...so...I have made a little puzzle honoring one of my favorite cruciverbalist pal's recent engagement that you can download on Orange's Crossword Fiend's Lost Island of Puzzles:http://www.crosswordfiend.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=749&sid=d395812e45468d8e8b6b232752389468

Really? *That* bad? True, the "T" theme twas tforced tat times, but this excoriation is a bit heavy-handed. Under the parameters the constructor set, I'd say he did a yeoman's job. As for the quality of the parameters themselves, I see less intriguing ideas from the pages of the NY Times every week. Maybe your objection is with Shortz for placing the puzzle on a Wednesday. But, to compare this puzzle -- standing alone -- to one found in an airplane magazine constructed by a pilot on his coffee break is taking the criticism way too far. Paul, I think you did a fine job.

Well, I didn't notice that all the clues started with T nor that every answer has a T, so I really must have been solving on auto-pilot. Just the three 15s with T-T phrases. Rather meager for a Wednesday, I thought. Should have seen the light about the Ts with ETTA, ATTA, ETTU, ETAS, SETA, ETTES....Still, I had a nice little chuckle when I finally figured out what 'takes a step toward biting?' was getting at: TEETHES.

Me thinks Will got his puzzles out of queue this would have made for a cute Monday. Didn't notice that all the answers had a T and all the clues started with T before coming here. I can be a little obtuse at times. Learning that made this a lot more fun and interesting.

My version: I wanted to limber up for Lollapuzzoola 4, so I sat down and ripped through the puzzle as fast as possible (for me, not that fast), so I failed to notice the "every clue/every answer starts with/contains T".

The truth: I probably wouldn't have noticed no matter how much I "savored" the solve.

Didn't see all the answers had a "T" and all the clues started with "T" 'til I came hear. Takes my opinion of the puz from a T+ to a C-.

I suppose including Heston in this T-Party is probably appropriate. Working in Cantor would have been good, too. I guess Bachman and Palin aren't true T-Partiers, but Newt should be back in the Turkey club.

Ripped through this in record time for a Wednesday, and completely missed the "every clue starting with t" thing. One more for the RENDS/RENTS writeover.

I'm not feeling the hate for this one. The fill isn't particularly gross (we've certainly seen worse); my only nitpick is that it ran on the wrong day. Seems more Tuesday-ish than Wednesday. Not the most inspiring theme, true, but a nice smooth solve.

I can't believe I didn't see that the clues all started with T's until coming here, maybe because I was half asleep or puzzling over the theme just being three 15's with T's. I was happy to learn that there's more to itttttttt.

I think everybody would be happier if this had run on Monday or, better, Tuesday.

I loved seeing ETRADE because it immediately conjured up the baby in the crib with his smartphone singing, "Nobody knows the trouble ..."

Congratulations, Paul, this couldn't have been easy to pull off. Does the fact that your name has two T's have anything to do with it?

Well, before coming here, I *thought* my only error/writeover was ESTEr before ESTEE at 4oD, but I now see that I effed (teed?) up 36A with the trendy dOV. Never noticed all the Ts in the clues. Surely noticed them in the answers, which makes me even pissier at me about dOV.

TEMPORARY TATTOO seems oxymoronic to this tattooed man. It either is or is not a tattoo, and tattoos are permanent. Those henna things are not tattoos, but I can't decide what else to call them.

@Santafefran: I hope you are not tuning in to the legendary Taos Hum! Google that puppy!

Nice to know I'm not alone in a) RENdS/dOV, and b) not noticing that the theme was more than long acrosses where both words started with T. Can't say I hated it, but I wasn't thrilled - once I came here and learned the full theme, I was a little more impressed.

I did like the SW corner, once I noticed it - on the other hand, I really don't like SUETS, or ETAIL as a verb.

Just saying, if you had figured out that every answer had a T, then DOV can't be right... It had to be TOV. Right? I say that variety is the spice of life and a T puzzle for a Wednesday is a good thing. Mazel Dov to the constructor!

Fliends, Lomans, countrymen, RENd me your ears. The only thing worth noting about this mouse of a puzzle is what Andrea said. Though Tevya spoke Yiddish, not Hebrew, he may very well have said "Mazel TOV" on occason.

Didn't see that every clue began with a T until the writeup, nor that every answer had a T in it, only noticed the staggering number of Ts, over and above the 3 long answers.

Only reason I finished correctly was that I knew TOV meant good, from mazel tov. But of course it was a writeover. RENTS??? Ok....

Finished yesterday's in about 6 1/2 minutes, over my average, and set what I figure is a Wednesday record today, about 5 mins 55 secs (I don't time later week puzzles much, but I think my record was around 8 or so)

It's not whether TOV makes more sense than DOV — it clearly does. But RENDS makes *so much more sense* than RENTS (a word no one would use in sense of "tears"(n.)), that TOV likely never made it to many people's radars. Most probably thought "[shrug], Yiddish, what do I know?"

I find it interesting that the phrase "rent in the side" has over three million hits, most of which are relevant. Other than @Mike Rees, most people here at least grudgingly admit that there is a noun "rent" and it means "tear," but I have no idea why "rent in the side" is so popular, or why I googled it.

I posted this yesterday at Wordplay, and offer it here as well without comment.

sEETHE/ESsEE for me too. Sailed through fast for me. Noticed all the Ts and that helped fix RENdS as I said Doh to TOV. Then I saw all the Clue Ts. Didn't think it was all that bad. @acme: agree, the box in SW is cute. I'll check the present puzzle later. A crunchy doable Thursday would be just fine, please.

I must have glanced over it, but have seen no mention of a certain mohawk-sporting, muscular fellow who's more partial to another Letter on his team, and whose trademarked phrase could well be employed today?

Martin's comment about "rent in the side" shows up on first page of a search for ["rent in the side"], which tells you all you need to know about the phrase's "relevance." Can we agree that Google searches are an extremely inexact and unconvincing way of establishing the "in-the-language"-ness of words/phrases?

The suggestion that Tevye did not know TOV, since it was Hebrew and not Yiddish, is completely off the wall. To start with, it's his own name! "Tevye" is a corrupted version of "Tuvya" or "Toviah", based on the Hebrew for "God is good". (I suspect this may even count as improper cluing!)

Moreover, in addition to him knowing "mazel tov", he would certainly know "yom tov", the Hebrew word for holiday. Yes, it was corrupted into the Yiddish "yontif", but both are used. In addition, the prayers are all in Hebrew, and TOV in various forms is quite common.

For what it's worth, "Dov", usually pronounced "duv", like the English "dove", is Hebrew for bear, by the way. Some names are given twice, Hebrew then Yiddish, and "Dov Ber" is common enough.

I know I shouldn't smirk, but I never even had a chance to make the RENdS mistake.

I really dug this puzzle, even though I didn't notice all the clues started with T, nor did I realize that every answer had one. I think this was a terrific feat of construction, and I enjoyed the solving experience.

Paul - thanks!

Love the fact that Foodie either likes T-Pain, or at least had enough interest to Google him. How come my neuroscience professors were never this cool?!!

@CoolPapaD, thanks ;) I had heard of T-Pain before. But I didn't know his full name until I googled him. I also liked the names of his kids, Lyriq and Muzik.

At some point, I started watching the "Real World" (in its early days) with my teenage kids and it was a blast. It was also a whole different world, to me. It made me realize that I didn't want to become one of those people who only know what's expected of their age group. And how can I mentor young people if I'm clueless about their lives? Only problem is how much there's to know!

Didn't have the chance to solve this one, though it might have been more fun for me than for Rex — an accumulation of ETTA/ET_TU/ATTA [SW corner] can be comical even if the components are slag. Yes, the puzzle theme could have been used to choose between 36A:TOV and "Dov", which makes this a point in the puzzle's favor. I wouldn't have noticed because I already know that in Hebrew "Dov" (דוב) = Bear (as in the animal, also used as a masculine name), while "Tov" (טוב) = good, as in "mazal tov", also "Shanah Tovah" (happy new year, literally "a good year", using the feminine form "Tovah" טובה to match the feminine "Shanah" שנה).

In case you're wondering: in modern Hebrew "mazal tov" (usually pronounced "mazel tov" in Yiddish) does translate literally into "good luck", but its usage is closer to the familiar "congratulations". The reason is apparently that "mazal" מזל is used in an older sense "a sign of the zodiac" (retained in modern Hebrew but less common), so "mazal tov" means a propitious sign, later transferred to an event attributable in folk belief to such a sign.

I mean, I know Tevye would know TOV in MAZEL TOV, I just meant if the editor/writer were looking for a random Hebrew name (that started with T) they might have chosen a less confusing one than Tevye, under the Jew does not equal Israeli clause! (Not to be confused with the Santa Clause!)

And better to have clued RENTS as "Leases" or something and not one person would have made the mistake.It's not that DOV = Bear is the tipoff, it's that DOV in teh context of a shtetl Jew from Poland/Russia doesn't register as wrong.I'm not explaining this well, but I know what I mean.

@Foodie, mac and others who did the engagement puzzle, thanks! I think Patrick liked it and was going to slip it into Rebecca's travel bag today :)They are a very well-matched couple! @litdocYes, all the naughty words clued straight was a wink to Mr. Blindauer's sometimes raunchy sense of humor...

This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.

All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)

I finished this one thinking "Damn, there are a lot of Ts in this puzzle!" but never noticed that every clue and answer included one. (Hand up for RENDS/DOV.) I wonder if Rex's write-up would have been completely different if TEA PARTY had been thrown in there somewhere.

@sanfranman59 - Since I happen to be posting right after you (though five weeks later), I'm hoping you might see this and explain the difficulty ratings. There seem to be three times and a percentage, but I have no clue what any of them refer to. Help?

From syndiland, there have been over 80 comments from the prime-timers and at least one other syndi-solver (Hi, @Deb!)and not one person succumbed to the temptation to make a T-@Rex joke, so I won't either - unless I just did. (But he did tear into it (RENT it?) pretty good, didn't he?)

Same mistake, same obliviousness to the theme as many others.

Now I'm off to solve ACME's puzzle rather than remain teed-off at this one.